The new cultivar was discovered as a result of a planned breeding program directed by the inventor, Rene Denis a citizen of Belgium. The seed parent is an undistributed, unpatented proprietary variety Calathea hybrid ‘Z204’ and the pollen parent is the undistributed, unpatented proprietary variety Calathea hybrid ‘Z154.’ The cross resulting in ‘Cobra Pink’ was made in November 2004, the new variety was discovered as a seedling in March 2005, by the inventor in a commercial research greenhouse in Beervelde, Belgium.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘COBRA PINK’ was first performed in December 2008, by tissue culture at a commercial laboratory in Brussels, Belgium. Multiple generations have since been produced and have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.